Margaret Neal, 52, of Detroit has worked at McDonald's for 15 years and says she mans the grill by herself. Neal says the work she does warrants more pay.

Written by

Paul Davidson
| USA Today

A recent wave of strikes by fast-food employees in four cities spread to Milwaukee on Wednesday as demands for higher pay shake up an industry previously insulated from worker unrest.

Front-line, limited-service restaurant workers, including fast-food employees, earned a nationwide average of $9.05 an hour in March, up 2.7 percent the past three years, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By contrast, the pay of all private-sector nonmanagement workers is up 5.7 percent in that period. Adjusting for inflation, fast-food wages have fallen 36 cents an hour since 2010, even as the ...